How Well Is the Writing-Intensive (WI) Requirement Being Met?

by Sue Durham, Nursing, WAC Assistant Director

When contemplating writing about the WI requirement, my thought was, “How am I going to give this information a new slant?” WI requirement, sounds so, well, “required.” And I know that at this busy time of the semester, the last thing anyone wants to read about is another requirement. But, in fact, that is exactly what the WI course is, and making sure that each unit in the university meets the WI criteria constitutes the charge of the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) committee.

Because curricula and course requirements change, every three years the WAC committee collects WI syllabi from every major to understand what writing is being assigned and how it is taught in these courses. To define the enormity of this task, GMU has 50 undergraduate programs and each of those programs has one or more WI requirements, often with several sections of the same course being taught each semester. This means that our approximately 18,000 undergraduates leave GMU with at least one opportunity to develop a significant piece of writing within their discipline.

WAC success cannot happen without dedicated faculty buy-in and cooperation. GMU is fortunate in that most units cooperate fully in the development and designation of a WI course within their majors. However, each year WI course designations change, as do the faculty who teach them; each change may entail a reorientation to the WAC mission.

Writing-intensive courses must meet certain criteria: classes are limited to 35 students and each student must submit 3,500 words of graded writing. [For further information on criteria for WI courses, click here.] Most importantly, however, writing assignments must emphasize the process of drafting, revision with teacher feedback, and resubmission so that students improve and grow as writers. This challenge is met in a variety of ways. In some courses, in Math and Physics, for example, students are given iterative assignments rather than a revision option. And in some majors, the requirement is met by two or more courses.

Many faculty wonder why teaching writing is not left up to the English Department because fitting in discipline-specific course content is already a challenge. Adding a writing requirement to the mix may seem hard to accomplish. Yet we know that students don’t learn writing once and for all in one course. We all have a stake in ensuring that GMU graduates have mastered general academic and discipline-specific writing skills. By teaching the WI course within the discipline, faculty are able to teach the particular types of writing that will be demanded of their graduates when they leave our courses. When our students write well in their workplaces, their success reflects well on the teaching-with-writing efforts of all of us.

WI Pedagogy Tip: According to research on writing (see Richard Light’s Making the Most of College, for example), students benefit most from short writing assignments given throughout the semester and returned with feedback.

Click here for a form with information about how to propose a new (or revise an existing) Writing Intensive course.